In Life…

Many of you have probably heard the good news about my visa—my initial application was approved last week, meaning I'm allowed to live there for two and a half years before I need to apply for an extension (and eventual citizenship). It's a really exciting time, but that means I need to sell a lot of my belongings, and fast—I'm moving over on February 19th.

In particular, I want to try to offload many of my books. Moving in with Simon means we'll have a lot of unnecessary duplicates. Some of these are quite old, but it's only fair to give my friends and followers the chance to pick up some if they really want them.

It's rare that I can pinpoint the exact moment, location, and circumstances of the first time that I met a particular person, especially when I'm fortunate to meet so many at hectic conferences and events. But Chloe Weil stood out.

I met Chloe for the first time on May 1 2011, outside Walgreens on Boylston Street in Boston. It was a beautiful, warm spring day, and I'd just photographed my favourite cherry blossoms in bloom further down on Newbury Street. I bumped into my friend Petra and she introduced me; Chloe was her co-worker at iSite Design in Portland, Oregon. Petra had convinced Chloe to attend the An Event Apart conference with her and was showing her around. Like most people, the first thing I noticed about Chloe was her unforgettable smile.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor of winning Net Magazine's Designer of the Year award for at the 2014 Net Awards!

It was a complete and total surprise, especially given the talent of the other nominees. A massive thanks to whoever nominated and voted for me. It put the biggest smile on my face, and what a perfect way to end another trip to the UK!

I'll be the first to admit I've neglected my blog since going freelance earlier this year.

To be fair to myself, though, I like to blame the scarce updates on my commitment to the Pastry Box Project, which had me contributing monthly posts for 2013. If you count my book, too, I've actually done more writing this year than any other! Here's a look back on other personal highlights of 2013. I hope to make this a yearly tradition — a good way to reflect and set goals for the future!

I know, I know — I'm long overdue for a blog post. Outside of the monthly contributions I've been making over at The Pastry Box Project, I've been holding off on updating my personal blog.

As many of you know, I left my agency job and became a full-time freelancer back in March. Since then, I've been working on a few exciting projects, one of which being this new (and improved!) website which I'm finally able to show you…